The Most Important Book

Photo: Pravmir.ru     

This cry of the soul about the state of modern youth, though written specifically for Russians, well applies to nearly every modern developed society in a post Christian world.

At one time it was considered that the Russian people are the biggest readers in the world. Indeed, compared to modern times, there was not much entertainment in those days, and people often spent their free time with a book. Naturally, without any irony, a book was regarded as the best gift. And how did it happen that a generation of avid readers raised generations of people who did not know the joy of friendship with a book? I remember a character of a modern TV series who wondered how a generation of people who had nothing could raise a generation of people who now have everything. It turns out that external objective circumstances, the influence of the street or one’s peers are often stronger than the parents’ influence on their children.

If forty years ago, a Soviet student was ashamed of not having the necessary minimal knowledge, today no one cares. Sometimes young people even flaunt their ignorance, according to the principle, “Knowledge is nothing—money is everything!” That’s why on TV we have to listen to the “pearls” from modern young ignoramuses. After talking with representatives of the non-reading generation, journalists have learned that “St. Alexander Nevsky defeated Napoleon on Kulikovo Field”, and “Stalin was a famous writer”. A female student of the History Department could not give the date of the beginning of the Second World War. And for some of them, Khatyn is an “island” or “some holiday”. It is useless to talk about more complicated things.¹

Respect for the past was what the great Pushkin called the trait that distinguishes education from savagery. In our time, we acquired this respect from books, and so strongly that it lasted a lifetime. In fact, people who do not like to read can only be pitied. Their inner world is very poor—they are often very bored, and have to constantly look for outside impressions or entertainment. But well-read people, as a rule, have a rich inner world and do not need external entertainment at all. They are never bored with themselves. A well-read person knows how not to depend on other people’s opinions, always having his own. He knows how to compare and analyze and can resist imposed ideas.

Of course, the love of a good book is instilled from childhood. A child goes into the world of books as into a mysterious garden, beckoning with its unique fragrances. Curiosity and thirst for discoveries are natural for healthy children. And they could satisfy these needs by discovering the world of books. It was through books that we once learned about many countries of the world without leaving our rooms, communicated with people who had died long ago, and acquired a taste for good poetry. Thanks to books, love for the Motherland was born in us, and we became morally purer.

An acquaintance of mine once gave an example from his own life. He was raised in an orphanage where stealing was common among the children. They would steal money, toys, and food from each other. And he was no exception. But he enjoyed reading books, which in his sorrowful orphanage life were not only a source of knowledge, but also a consolation. One day he realized that it was unbecoming to steal and read about outstanding people who set a moral example with their lives simultaneously. After this correct conclusion, he loathed stealing.

This important quality of books—moral influence on a person—is beautifully described in the famous “Ballad of the Struggle” by Vladimir Vysotsky (1938–1980):

If by your father’s sword you hacked way in your rush,
If you poured salted tears upon your moustache,
If you have understood “What is what” in the fight,
Then the books you read in childhood were needful and right.²

It is clear that books are written by people who convey their experience, feelings, and views on life through them. We can say that through books we come into contact with their authors, who had often lived long before we were born. Therefore, avid readers subconsciously form an attitude towards books as towards people. True, like people, books can be both good and bad. Books can ennoble a person or corrupt him, reveal the truth or mislead.

But one has to earn the title of “Human Being”. Not everyone born of a woman can succeed as a human being. Likewise, not everything that is written and printed deserves the title of a Book. There are books that bring us good and eternal things, and there is simply reading matter, which is filled with vulgarity and spiritual emptiness. There are books that are teachers, mentors and comforters, and there are books whose purpose is simply to entertain.

It is natural for a healthy person to have a good appetite. Lack of appetite is a sign of illness or dying. Likewise, from a spiritual perspective, it is natural for a normal person to be hungering and thirsting for righteousness (Mt. 5:6), and not just righteousness, but the righteousness of Christ. The absence of such hunger and thirst is a sign of the death of the soul.

Thus, those who in childhood satisfied their curiosity through books, as they grow up they naturally begin to hunger and thirst for the righteousness of Christ, desiring to unriddle the mysteries of the spiritual world. And this spiritual thirst brings them to the most important book of every person in this life: the Gospel of Christ. In this book, people find full satisfaction of their spiritual needs by entering into invisible communion with God.

The holy ascetics called the Gospel “the mouth of Christ”. According to St. Ignatius Brianchaninov

“>St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov), the Gospel is a book of life that must be read by your life itself. He draws our attention to the fact that the Gospel is the book of the Heavenly Physician, upon which our eternal fate depends: “According to it we will be judged; and depending on how we behaved here on earth in relation to it, we will receive either eternal bliss or eternal punishment.”

This is formidable warning of which most people are blithely unaware. The tragedy is that so many people cross the threshold of death without ever opening this most important book. According to one priest, someone who did not get acquainted with the Gospel of Christ during his earthly life lived it in vain. We can agree with this, with one exception: there are objective circumstances in life that prevent a person from reading or hearing the Gospel. But there are people who have come into contact with it through their deeds.

The main thing that the Gospel teaches us is sacrificial love. And we know quite a few non-religious people and even non-believers who sacrificed their own lives to save others. Didn’t they come into contact with the Gospel by doing this? They read it by their lives, according to St. Ignatius.

Meanwhile, we meet many of church people who have read both the Gospel and the Holy Fathers, but show hard-heartedness and callousness to others. It is clear that the Gospel does not manifest itself in their lives at all. Their acquaintance with the Gospel will be for their condemnation.

What can we say about those who are hostile to the Word of Christ or have a negative attitude to it? These are atheists, adherents of some other religions, or just ignoramuses. We can only feel sorry for them, because they pass up the most important and the most precious thing in life. After all, according to Tertullian, “the human soul is by nature Christian”—because Jesus Christ is our Creator. Therefore, by its very nature His Gospel should be close and dear to us. And if a person remains indifferent to the Word of Christ and does not respond to it, this indicates how seriously ill his soul is. That is why the spiritual thirst for the righteousness of Christ is so natural for a sincere soul that has not yet hardened.

From Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh and His Ministry in the UKHe had knowledge, wisdom, and love. He spoke directly, like a close friend and a father.

“>Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh’s account of his personal experience, we see a vivid example of how a pure soul responds to the Gospel when exposed to it. As a teenager he was an atheist. Having once attended a lecture of Fr. Sergei Bulgakov, he became enraged and decided to familiarize himself with the Gospel in order to, as he put it, “give up faith in God forever.” But instead, as he read the Gospel, he clearly felt the presence of Christ Himself. For him it was a miracle; the Gospel revealed to him the meaning not only of many phenomena, but also of life itself. He began to live in a transformed world. On the street and on the train he would come up to strangers and ask them if they had ever read the Gospel. Many answered in the negative, and he, shocked that they had not known the Truth in adulthood, tried to make them understand that they did not yet have the most important thing in their lives.

And let’s take the story of a man at a bus stop, when the wind brought him a leaf from a book, and he started reading it for want of anything better to do. It was a page from the Gospel. The man found God and another world, after which he decided to enter a theological seminary in order to learn more about God. Having learned about the circumstances of his conversion, at the seminary they decided to meet him halfway.

In general, the Gospel is a special, amazing phenomenon in our lives. It happens that someone becomes disillusioned with his ideals and may lose faith in God. Even his own life and the surrounding nature cease to convince him of the existence of a merciful God. But the only thing that stops him from falling completely is the existence of the Gospel. It continues to be the only source of spiritual light in the darkness of unbelief. This person can do nothing with the Gospel: neither deny it nor explain it to justify his unbelief. He understands that no one could have arrived at many of the Gospel revelations and truths himself; it is simply beyond human strength—especially to fill the Gospel with the spiritual power and authority that people do not have. For him, the Gospel continues to be a window to the Heavenly world and the proof of God’s presence in our lives. For the main Author of the Gospel is the Holy Spirit, through Whose help the apostles wrote it.

On learning about Christ and His Gospel, a person discovers the wonderful world of spiritual literature—the writings of the holy ascetics, whom we call the Church Fathers. Each of them is like a gemstone, unique in its own way, and their legacy is like a spiritual treasure trove for us. The Patristic writings are not only instructions, but also spiritual consolation and food for the soul. Once a person is exposed to the world of Patristic Writings, he realizes that everything he had read before cannot be compared to a spiritual book. And even classical literature can no longer claim to be food for the soul.

And if this great spiritual legacy is not in demand among many modern Christians, what can we say about people who are far from the Church? Perhaps only in eternity will many people understand what they deprived themselves of on earth, feeding their souls with slops.

The fact that modern youth does not know the history of their Motherland well is akin to a spiritual disaster. After all, the development of a person in childhood begins through the cultivation of love for the Motherland in him. The cause of such an attitude in young people towards their origins is explained by the well–known saying, “If you want to defeat your enemy, raise his children.” At the turning point of the ages, our children began to be brought up by foreign books, movies and heroes; they began to be taught to worship idols alien to our mentality and nourished by second-rate examples of Western culture.

Our history began to be rewritten and distorted, with its best heroes being ignored or lied about. The love of books ceased to be instilled in our children. What is this, if not enemy sabotage?

Years have passed, and many children raised in this way have grown to be people indifferent to the history of their Fatherland, and traitors who are ready to sell their homeland for money.

If we want to protect our children from enemy influences and raise them to be faithful sons and daughters of their Motherland, the best way to do it is to educate them ourselves in the love for Christ and His Gospel, using good books, including the best examples of spiritual literature. Indeed, according to Saint Philaret (Drozdov), Metropolitan of MoscowKnowledge has for its object things visible and comprehensible; faith, things which are invisible, and even incomprehensible. Knowledge is founded on experience, on examination of its object; but faith on belief of testimony to truth. Knowledge belongs properly to the intellect, although it may also act on the heart; faith belongs principally to the heart, although it is imparted through the intellect.

“>St. Philaret (Drozdov) of Moscow and Kolomna, traitors to the earthly Fatherland deprive themselves of bliss in Heaven.

The future of our children is being built here and now. What it will be like largely depends on the attitude of the adult community towards the phenomena taking place these days. Many things alien to the Orthodox faith and Russian culture are appearing in our lives. These alien phenomena often behave aggressively and officiously. His Holiness Patriarch Kirill has repeatedly said this in his speeches. And if adults don’t draw the right conclusions now and don’t do something about it, then their children and grandchildren will become strangers in their native land.

It depends on us whether we will preserve for our children the great legacy that our ancestors, who had built Russia with great efforts, passed on to us. If Russia dies because of our indifference and inertness, others will say about us, using the words of the poet Taras Shevchenko, “The lousy great-grandchildren of great and glorious great-grandparents…”